Josep Maria Bartomeu

New low is saying anything of the sort when when his future with Barca is in doubt with 18 months left on his contract.

And forget bad tact of it for a minute or how he already has history of downplaying Messi (Africa comment), he's wrong anyhow.
Pique, Neymar have 0 to do with Messi being great. Messi was a beast with Pedro, Chygrinsky or Alexis.

So yeah, that guy is awkward idiot just like Bartomeu, Faus or whoever the fuck thinks Barca would be anywhere near where is now without Messi.
This shitty board was virtually gone and saved by Messi who took reins in his hands and told Suarez to play cf while moving himself wide.

To put it short: They are a clueless bunch riding on Messi's back.

LeeRomeno said:

Agreed, we have now news in Estonia newspapers claiming barca is run like north korea and praising only Messi is allowed.

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Oh great, my news too! Because news are moral example for us, right.

You can take it and wipe your ass with it.

I don't think simply praising his teammates is in any way "downplaying" Messi's performance. Nor do I think that Messi would be so arrogant that he makes his contract extension dependend on people single only him out for victories. If anything then this move by the board is manifesting this image that many people in the media have of him being bigger than the club already. Firing a guy just because of a harmless statement like this is a huge exaggeration and the public is giving the club rightfully a lot of shit right now.

Yannik said:

I don't think simply praising his teammates is in any way "downplaying" Messi's performance. Nor do I think that Messi would be so arrogant that he makes his contract extension dependend on people single only him out for victories. If anything then this move by the board is manifesting this image that many people in the media have of him being bigger than the club already. Firing a guy just because of a harmless statement like this is a huge exaggeration and the public is giving the club rightfully a lot of shit right now.

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He was fired because his comments were a nuclear bomb in catalunya. Gratacos used the madridistas argument of Messi being good because of his teammates, and this, after grau's comments last week, about Messi's renewal, sparked a lot of criticism. So this was their reaction. I just don't get why grau wasn't punished as well, his comment was worse.

And gratacos was demoted, not fired, as first reported.

FlaFCB said:

He was fired because his comments were a nuclear bomb in catalunya. Gratacos used the madridistas argument of Messi being good because of his teammates, and this, after grau's comments last week, about Messi's renewal, sparked a lot of criticism. So this was their reaction. I just don't get why grau wasn't punished as well, his comment was worse.

And gratacos was demoted, not fired, as first reported.

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Is Grau that guy who said they'll have to use common sense over Messi's contract?
And where did he use Madrid facebook logic, all he literally said was that Messi is the best player in the game, but he wouldn't be as good without his team. Hardly a controversial opinion.
Imagine how Neymar and Iniesta feel after the club demotes someone for saying they complement Messi and that not everything good is because of Leo.

And lets be honest: Messi is not going anywhere lol. Firing or even just demoting this guy is just overreacting. Absolutely overreacting. AND badly timed, like at least do that silently 2 weeks after on a lonely thursday where noone watches. The guy was fired because in an attempt to praise Messis surrounding he just so happened to have slightly touched the narrative of a few Madrid fans. Whereas with the clubs reaction another much more popular narrative has been absolutely fucking approved.

Yannik said:

Is Grau that guy who said they'll have to use common sense over Messi's contract?
And where did he use Madrid facebook logic, all he literally said was that Messi is the best player in the game, but he wouldn't be as good without his team. Hardly a controversial opinion.
Imagine how Neymar and Iniesta feel after the club demotes someone for saying they complement Messi and that not everything good is because of Leo.

And lets be honest: Messi is not going anywhere lol. Firing or even just demoting this guy is just overreacting. Absolutely overreacting. AND badly timed, like at least do that silently 2 weeks after on a lonely thursday where noone watches. The guy was fired because in an attempt to praise Messis surrounding he just so happened to have slightly touched the narrative of a few Madrid fans. Whereas with the clubs reaction another much more popular narrative has been absolutely fucking approved.

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It's been mismanaged since the beginning. Barça's representatives should know how to deal with the Spanish press by now. Instead, they keep giving them fuel by creating those situations. It's not that hard to give neutral and not controversial statements. It was controversial because Messi would be the best in any team, not only here. And surely not because of his teammates.

And Messi's renewal is not finalized yet, you never know what could happen.

FlaFCB said:

It was controversial because Messi would be the best in any team, not only here. And surely not because of his teammates.

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But the quote that he made did include the statement that he'd be "obviously the best". The only way this ever became any controversial was because some newspaper only quoted that first bit without any context and left the rest out for clickbaits. I think it's quite questionable if the board of one of the biggest clubs in the world - going by the slogan Més que un club - acts against one of their own directors, because he was or was not slightly approving a stupid facebook meme, in an attempt to just give a little credit to the teammates around Messi that got shat on in the past few days whereas Messi himself was pictured as their imperial saviour.

A statement like this is plain normal and not controversial anywhere else but in Barcelona. And the reason for that is because they fear that it might fuel the argumentation of those they don't give a fuck about anyway. This is absolutely poor sport, not just the club gets bad PR, Messi does aswell although he might not actually have wanted that.

This is so cringeworthy. People actually believing that Messi wouldn't be as good somewhere else. Very arrogant from barça fans, plain weird from others. Get it in your head, titles don't make you good, and there are plenty of other teams Messi would have thrived with.

Throwing all context out the door to treat public declarations by a recidivist club employee on a philosophical level. Snowflake logic.

Yannik said:

But the quote that he made did include the statement that he'd be "obviously the best". The only way this ever became any controversial was because some newspaper only quoted that first bit without any context and left the rest out for clickbaits. I think it's quite questionable if the board of one of the biggest clubs in the world - going by the slogan Més que un club - acts against one of their own directors, because he was or was not slightly approving a stupid facebook meme, in an attempt to just give a little credit to the teammates around Messi that got shat on in the past few days whereas Messi himself was pictured as their imperial saviour.

A statement like this is plain normal and not controversial anywhere else but in Barcelona. And the reason for that is because they fear that it might fuel the argumentation of those they don't give a fuck about anyway. This is absolutely poor sport, not just the club gets bad PR, Messi does aswell although he might not actually have wanted that.

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It is controversial in Barcelona. The press from madrid use anything, so they need to be more smart about what is said. Given the current circumstances the whole club is facing, those statements should had been avoided all together. Also, mes que un club is about something else entirely.

TornAndFrayed said:

This is so cringeworthy. People actually believing that Messi wouldn't be as good somewhere else. Very arrogant from barça fans, plain weird from others. Get it in your head, titles don't make you good, and there are plenty of other teams Messi would have thrived with.

People throwing all context out the door to treat public declarations by a recidivist club employee on a philosophical level. Snowflake logic.

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Yep.

[MENTION=19371]Yannik[/MENTION], agree with everything you said on the subject, mate. Sounds logic, sensible and reasonable to me.

FlaFCB said:

It is controversial in Barcelona. The press from madrid use anything, so they need to be more smart about what is said. Given the current circumstances the whole club is facing, those statements should had been avoided all together. Also, mes que un club is about something else entirely.

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Sorry but I can hardly take this serious. You'd actually fight your own kind because of Madrid media. Who do you want to appease? Their readers who'll hate you anyway?
All which Barca basically achieved is global bad PR for themselves and most likely a confidence knack for the mentioned players who will have to deal with that, knowingly that claiming they make Messi play better is apparently not just perceived as wrong by their own club, but even so bad that it costs you your freakin job.

Yannik said:

Sorry but I can hardly take this serious. You'd actually fight your own kind because of Madrid media. Who do you want to appease? Their readers who'll hate you anyway?
All which Barca basically achieved is global bad PR for themselves and most likely a confidence knack for the mentioned players who will have to deal with that, knowingly that claiming they make Messi play better is apparently not just perceived as wrong by their own club, but even so bad that it costs you your freakin job.

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No, nothing of the sort. And those guys are supposedly professionals. They need to know how to deal with a press that is always persecuting the club. Players got mad with grau's statements, doubt they appreciated gratacos either. There's also timing and knowing how to express yourself. All gratacos did was create more controversy over nothing. Because he talked too much.

Not even the first time a Barça executive does that when Messi is renewing. Same happened in 2013 when faus talked out of his ass and pissed Messi, who refuted him back then. They really should know better by now.

[Tw]820281692002906112[/tw]

"I want to reassure everyone. Messi is the best and we want him to keep him here."

FlaFCB said:

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"I want to reassure everyone. Messi is the best and we want him to keep him here."

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I want to reassure everyone. Vidal, midfield Rafi and Turan are all starting against Las Palmas.

FlaFCB said:

No, nothing of the sort. And those guys are supposedly professionals. They need to know how to deal with a press that is always persecuting the club. Players got mad with grau's statements, doubt they appreciated gratacos either. There's also timing and knowing how to express yourself. All gratacos did was create more controversy over nothing. Because he talked too much.

Not even the first time a Barça executive does that when Messi is renewing. Same happened in 2013 when faus talked out of his ass and pissed Messi, who refuted him back then. They really should know better by now.

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You claim that as they are professionals they should know how to not fuel a Madrid based media outlet. But honestly: Who cares? They will shit on you anyway. And their readers will eat it regardless. Just a drop in the ocean. It's fucking laughable if your board bows to that shit.

As it is with Grau's comments. The guy basically appealed for rationality. He said that Barca has a certain revenue generated by sponsorship deals aswell as certain costs for player wages and the possibilities for a salary rise lies somewhere inbetween that. But Barca apparently doesn't accept rationality when it comes to Messi. They are rather urging to go batshit crazy over this. Users on this forum, aswell as Barcafans in general constantly complain about circus management. But as soon as Messi is involved there are no boundaries whatsoever and every rationale is thrown out of the window even by the fans. Yes, he's arguably one of or maybe even the greatest there has been. But your club is also one of the biggest there is. Act accordingly ffs.

Barca is the only club in the world where an individual has actually managed to be bigger than the club, a condition enabled by your pittyful submissiveness and something that should never ever happen. The guy could demand the signing of Mariah Carey and John Cena as CBs and they would do it. Even Real Madrid has still some power left over their star. It's ashaming that plain normal comments are considered controversial because they fear the relentless wrath of a 5'5" guy employed by them. One guy appealed for reason, the other praised his teammates. Neither of them went public with his mum's phonenumber, but it's bad enough that they even dared to remotely broach a touchy subject.